400 people singing in a stadium that holds 15k is not atmosphere.....I remember when we spanked Wire back in 2009 in front of 3,206....we stuck 60 on them, we were all confined to the east and sang loads, but the place was still relitively quiet. Now you can sit where you want, the chances of any atmosphere in the ground with less than 8k is remote at best.

For years we have defended the club from claims that home support was outnumbered by travelling fans.....and with each year this defence gets harder to justify.

September 8th last year we were on a roll having scored 102 points in our 2 previous home games which we won......yet 2,525 rolled up to the stoop to see the 90 point game and season finale win

The RFL did us no favours when they insisted Ian Lenagan could have no part in the running of our club as well as Wigan.

Since he took over in 2008 they have increased their crowds by about 3k, or 25% over a 5 year period. Conservatively, this about another 1.2 to 1.5 million on their turn over and points to him not having to do much other than think of ways to continue that growth......he certainly doesn't have to bankroll them like some other owners do their clubs.

On reflection, the RFL should have left him have interests in both clubs....even if it meant a bit of auditing to make sure nothing untowards was going on. Since he left, we've shipped about 1,100 a game or half a million in revenue



Now it seems that a potential buyer may have been found for Salford.....it begs the question that given the undoubted potential for the growth of RL in the London area, why in s name we can't get anyone to take over and run our club properly

You cant have feet in 2 camps-He is a Pie end of. We need to replace him.

Funny you should say that as I thought it was much better at both OTR games last year than at most of the home games at the Stoop - reminded me of the Griffin Park days where although we didn't have huge crowds we had a much better atmos than in this spell in Twickenham.

How many matches have you been to while we have been London Broncos this time round so you can make accurate assessments of the atmosphere in our current two stand set up?

Come on.The game against Salford, until five minutes into the second half, was like being at the funeral of London Rugby League. To be honest if we hadn't turned them over in the second half like we did it may well have been for real!

You are right but it is up to the few who attend to make the noise although it helps when the team turns up on the park

The "crowd", such as it was, did make quite a bit of noise at the end of the first half against Salford, pretty loud boo-ing. May have played some part in what happened in the second half.

I wouldnt know as I'd already scarpered

Pity you didnt take Powell with you-He should have gone after the Reds away game which was a disgrace

none....I became confused about who they were.....was it Ice Hockey.....was it gridiron or were they still giving Rugby Lessons at local schools? I tried togetsome more info and buy some merchandise, but the confusion became too much........I will probably come back when they can further clarify who they areand what they do...same goes for the other 750 or so that seem to have drifted.

Thought it was 8k who drifted away?

Nope....
In reality, a few dozen or so refused tofollowthe Broncos to the Stoop when we became Quins........the club, as they always have done, expected the masses to flock to games, then when they didn't, the reverted back to the Broncos......except this time around, those battle weary London RL fans were having none of it....

In short, it matters not what they are called nor where they play, until they market themselves properly, me and listy will split hairs about me having to actually be there to experience the atmosphere of 1,500 rattling around in a 15,000 stadium.

This time next year I suspect Gus might be able to call all season ticket holders personally to ask them to renew........but I'd be at a loss to say what he'd do for the other 7 hours of his Monday

I think a lot of Quins RU fellow travellers were seen off by the rebrand.

An impressive feat to alienate both RU & RL fans equally with name changes.

Indeed. And not content with that, the poor citizens of Gillingham are next up in his sights.

Despite the RFL being clueless even they recognise the importance of creating atmosphere at sporting events, thats why 1 of the original 10 licence application ' ticks ' was an average attendance of 40% of your stadiums capacity

Leigh are going to consider using just 1 stand at the LSV if the decline in attendances continues,

What? both of them?



Seriously though, do you think we acquired more QRU fans (and then lost them) than the number of Broncos fans we lost due to the change to H*******s?

I think there was some cross-over but who could blame anybody walking away after the last two years. This season should be all about winning hearts and minds - How about it Gus?

No.

But both rebrands eroded the fanbase to a greater & lesser degree.

God knows what effect Chatham Drongos will have if it comes to pass.

Interesting to read the comments by Gus in Forty-20 magazine. If you haven't seen them basically he says we want out of The Stoop at the end of the coming season, with the magazine hinting we can't afford to stay, though the old it's a RU area argument is trotted out by Gus. He goes on to say the club are targeting East London and out of season football fans (an idea that just flew at Charlton as I recall.)

Makes you wonder quite how much point there is marketing this season to the locals. 'Come and watch us, we probably won't be here next year though................'

The sad thing is I'm not half as upset about the mess this club is in as I would have been a few years ago. It's almost an air of fatalistic resignation now and if they can do that to a season ticket holder of well over a decade, and several parts of London, standing I'm not surprised they are struggling to win / retain new support.

Gus's business sense is worse than his fielding

I'm already preparing for next year. Have bought a season ticket for Hemel Stags so I can get to know the players names now.

From Ian Ramsdale on twitter:

Just had a quick look at the website, £20 to get in

Is this meant to be a shock tactic to get more people to buy season tickets? I am a floating fan, I am the people this club needs to target and get through the door but £20 to get in? You'll be lucky to see me once this year.

Skolars for me. Not a great scoreline on Friday but on paper, the strongest Skolars side I've seen. The fixture list being sp is my only gripe but hey, it could be worse, Gus and David Hughes could run the club.

This beggars belief, we had to beg them to tell us where we were playing in 2012 at the end of 2011 and now Gus tells us where will be playing in 2014 before the 2013 season starts. Bonkers strategy to build crowds in 2013.


Enjoy 2013, whilst you can. God knows if the club will appear in 2014 in London!